We are all born free. Every single being is born to this beautiful planet as an individual, and all of nature comes together as one to create a ground to walk on, running water to drink, and plants to eat. Butterflies and bees to admire as they pollinate, and animals to watch as they scurry or gallop to wherever they are going. Humans of different skin color, hair color, body shapes and so on to live amongst each other and embrace, rather than hate, their differences. It can be magical if we let it. It can be magical if throughout the years, humanity did not have to be in control of something to feel significant.
I am currently writing in my blog about societal control, mainly over women. But not so long ago, there were laws that controlled women and took all rights from people with dark skin who were traded in from Africa. Last night me and a friend went to see Harriet Tubman, a woman with dark skin who had to fight through both of those man-made barriers. The advertisements for this movie showed a snippet of her telling a man that he can’t tell her what she can do. Instantly I needed to see it. But I didn’t pull exactly what I thought I would from it. I pulled a little bit more.
The movie does a good job of opening with the feeling of oppression and control. Not only from the slave owners, but from the slave’s own preacher who enforced that it was God’s word, God’s wanting that they serve the white man. While the movie continues to touch throughout on the control and oppression that the slave’s and even those who had freedom papers endured, and while it also touched strongly on how amazing, and how very strong this woman was, the movie is more about Harriet’s path. What I got most out of it was that this woman came to earth for a reason. To save people.
Everyone has their own opinion of how spirituality works. Some believe there is nothing after life. Some believe in the traditional heaven and hell. I have transitioned throughout the years, thus, I believe that everyone’s beliefs are formed first by upbringing and later by life experiences. I currently believe many, if not all people, are born here with a reason…a purpose. We may not all recognize our purpose before death, but I believe we all have one. Whether it be providing food to a homeless person one night or breaking free from slavery and then coming back to free 300 more slaves. And further, I believe that those with a purpose choose a sometimes painful path so we can live it and know personally that it must be fixed. So we can give or speak from experience. So we can walk out of those hot flames, heal, and bring buckets of water to those who are still in the flames.
I had no idea going into this movie that it would touch on spirituality, but it does, pretty heavily. In the movie, Harriet has premonitions. She is portrayed as being clairvoyant, which allows her to know when danger lurks to the left, and tells her to go right. It is this ability that allows her to go into the slavery camps and steal working slaves from their crops in broad daylight. She explains the visions as her “speaking to God”, that God chose this path for her. Nothing less than beautiful. I, of course, immediately Googled her ability when I left the theatre. There are a number of articles that say something was going on. She had a head injury at thirteen, so some say it was simply seizures that she believed were God reaching to her. Others say nothing about seizures, only that she believed she spoke with God on her path. With the consensus of all of the articles that I read saying that regardless of “what” they were, they did, in fact, direct her and keep her from harm.
But it wasn’t until one pivotal scene that I was convinced that Harriet’s journey was, in fact, her purpose. That everything she endured while in slavery was for a reason. Please don’t misunderstand that statement. I don’t believe slavery was for a reason or there was a purpose for slavery. It should never have existed at all. What I mean is that, as I said earlier, sometimes living through a situation better equips us to take on our soul’s purpose. And that was evident in a scene where all of the people involved in freeing slaves were in a large room. I believe it was the Pennsylvania’s Mayor’s home, but I don’t remember that specific fact. There were approximately thirty people all trying to do something about a new law that allowed people from the south to come up to Pennsylvania and search out people who were not free according to laws. The new law caused slaves to have to go 500 miles further north to be safe. Because the travel to freedom had increased from 100 to 600 miles, they decided that they would have to put the rescuing on hold and wait for the civil war to organize. All of the people in that room, of light and dark skins, aside from Harriet were born free. None of them had lived the life of a slave, except for Harriet. She immediately stood up to all of them. She had lived it. She knew the pain. She knew the people in slavery could not wait 10-15 years for the war to organize, they were entitled to safety and freedom at that very moment. Living through what it is we come here to stand for makes us that much more powerful while fighting for it.
I went into this movie knowing that Harriet Tubman was a pivotal part of the underground railroad. I left knowing that a woman who simply wanted to have a child and have it born free had to run for her life after speaking out to the man who thought he owned her. That when she fled, she began the path she was destined for. That she was so in touch with what her purpose was that she had visions that helped her find her way. That once she started on her life’s path, there was absolutely no stopping her.
I believe this movie will be truly inspiring to everyone who watches it…not just the strong, beautiful women who read my blog. It speaks of freedom and of the power one person can have when they have courage, love, and embrace their individual purpose.
Thank you for stopping by,
Sherry
Sherry Blogs 